We have often criticized Jim Sacia. We have lambasted him so often when we thought he was wrong that it's only fair that we commend him when he's right.

Sacia's recent column declares that the justice system is not always fair. He gives the example of Ethan Couch, a 16-year-old who, driving drunk, killed four bystanders in a Fort Worth, Texas, suburb. He was sentenced to 10 years' probation after a psychologist testified that the teen, being wealthy, did not understand the moral implications of his actions.

Couch lived in a gated community, one of many that sprang up near Dallas-Fort Worth after the Dallas school system was integrated, causing a rush of "white flight." James McAuley writes in the New York Times: "Few would dispute that millions of affluent - typically white - Americans choose to live in communities whose primary raison d'être is to afford their residents a pampered escape, a chance to withdraw from the barbarians at the gate and from every external reality imaginable."

The so-called extenuating condition Couch suffers from is called, all over the Internet, "affluenza," and Sacia is not the only who is outraged. He asks, "Where is the fairness? What about all the inner city kids with no financial means and no parental involvement. What clever word could we find to defend them?"

Indeed inner city kids, particularly African Americans, suffer disproportionately under the system. Pew Research Center says black men are more than six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men.

The NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet reports that although five times as many whites as African Americans use drugs, African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses 10 times more often. In fact, they spend about as much time in prison (58.7 months) for a drug offense as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months).

Sacia could have given other examples to illustrate the often inequitable application of punishments. In 2010 we wrote about Martin Erzinger, who, driving his Mercedes, seriously injured a cyclist and left the scene of the accident. The district attorney dropped a felony charge and agreed to a plea bargain, saying that "felony convictions have some serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's position." Erzinger was a private wealth manager at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He was charged only with a misdemeanor and sentenced to a year of probation and 90 days of community service.

As we said at the time, it's hard to believe a poor or minority person, or even a middle class white, would not have been charged with a felony.

In California, until 2011, shoplifting was considered "felony petty theft" if a person had a prior theft conviction. Thus a "three strikes law" resulted in Gary Ewing's receiving a sentence of 25 years in prison for shoplifting golf clubs. One wonders what his sentence might have been if he'd been a stockbroker.

Page 2 of 2 - Some can afford really good lawyers; others cannot. Billionaire creator of the Beanie Baby, Ty Warner, recently said he should not serve time in prison for tax evasion because he had a bad childhood. Can you imagine a poor or middle class person using that as an excuse?

With the huge income gap between rich and poor growing wider, the very wealthy might see themselves as above the law. It's a sad comment on society when a person can successfully plead "affluenza" in a criminal case or plea bargain with the excuse that one's highly profitable job prospects may suffer.

The justice system is not always fair. You got it right this time, Jim.